Study on Stability of Isotrussed Grid Wind Turbine Tower

Abstract

We are currently living in an era where we are meeting severe energy crisis. For meeting these energy requirements, we have been relying on renewable resources of energy especially the wind energy for the past few decades. This has lead to the development of wind turbine technology all across the world. The decreasing cost of wind power and the growing interest in renewable energy sources should ensure that wind power will become a viable energy source in the world. Wind turbines are being used to generate electricity as an alternative energy source to conventional fossil fuels and it is well known that wind towers must to sustain continuous vibration forces throughout their operational life. This thesis explores the stability of isotrussed grid structures as a wind turbine tower. Isotrussed tower is a type of free standing lattice tower and are constructed with fiber filaments that are interwoven in an open lattice design. This new generation tower offer light weight, high strength and cost effective type of construction. The paper discusses about three different types of isotrussed wind turbine tower models. These three models are developed by varying the positions of longitudinal members. Different stability criterion will be explained and analysed both analytically and numerically with the help of different standards. For analytical analysis all tasks will be performed on finite element package ANSYS.